


1964 - Homecoming

by howelleheir



Series: Unfinished Works [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Divorce, Dysfunctional Relationships, F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:48:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22158106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/howelleheir/pseuds/howelleheir
Summary: Bits and pieces, scraps, scenes, and other unfinished works. Many stop mid-sentence, most never develop a plot. These are all pieces that I started at one point or another and then moved on to another work, another ship, another fandom, or just got too busy to work on anything, so they will likely never be finished, but some of them were fun, and some were even good, so I'm putting them all out there with the disclaimer that they are abandoned WIPs, and unless a particular piece gets a lot of love and re-sparks my interest, I have no intention of coming back to them. Various fandoms and genres, some pieces very porny, some downright objectionable. Tread with care and mind the tags.In this work: Alexander Pierce contemplates his failing marriage.
Relationships: Aleksander Lukin/Alexander Pierce, Alexander Pierce/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Unfinished Works [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1594933
Kudos: 3





	1964 - Homecoming

Marriage had made sense six years ago. Alex had just been recruited as a surveillance specialist straight out of the Ops Academy. With his ambitions, he needed a family to enrich the image he had to project, and Marilyn fit the bill -- good family, good genes, and, most importantly, she didn’t ask questions. Not about his work, not about his family, not when his hours in the office or in the field slowly but steadily increased, and he spent more and more time away from home.  _ She _ tried to make a life with him, really tried. It was almost sad, though he couldn’t quite make himself feel  _ sorry. _ And he tried, too, at first. Brought home flowers, took her to dinner and the theater, or weekend camping trips at Shenandoah National Park, and if his smile was a little too coy or glances up through his eyelashes too submissive when he sat on floor of their bedroom rubbing her feet, she didn’t seem to notice.

He couldn’t quite put his finger on what had gone wrong. Maybe it was the stress of his responsibilities to both SHIELD and Hydra compounded with Marilyn’s difficult pregnancy and sleepless nights after Christine was born. Maybe it was that nagging little voice at the back of his mind that whispered that, no matter how much he  _ told _ himself he’d spent nearly fifteen years perfecting the art of feigning love and attraction, calling up whatever cards he needed to play -- adoration, enthusiasm, desire --  _ this _ didn’t feel the same. Here, shame and repulsion were ever-present, flaring at every tender caress of a body that felt altogether too small and soft, threatening to break through the facade of happy young husband and father. With Lukin, they only surfaced when the thrill of their cat-and-mouse game waned, in the small hours with nothing to occupy his mind but silence and the shadows on the ceiling. In Scarsdale, Alex had felt comfortable laid bare among ugliness and ambition and ruthlessness. It played to every strength he possessed. Of course it did; it had shaped them. Marriage, it turned out, revealed all the ways in which he was fundamentally broken. 

No matter the reason, when Christine was a year old, Alex lost the will to keep up the charade, and little by little, he stopped pretending that anything in their cozy suburban home interested him even in the slightest. To her credit, Marilyn endured four cold, sexless, and lonely years with little to indicate her misery but the occasional reminder that he could talk to their pastor if he ever needed to. Then, one night after she put Christine to bed and Alex flinched away from her hand in his hair, her patience finally ran out.

“I think you ought to move out,” she said quietly.

“Oh?” said Alex. That was all he could manage.  _ Oh. _ Barely a question at all. Then, after a long silence, “I’ll get a lawyer to draw up the papers.”

Marilyn shook her head. “No, you won’t,” she said. “I haven’t done anything to deserve that, not a damn thing. You’re going to pack a bag and go wherever it is that you’d rather be. You’ll come by on Sundays to be with Christine and collect the bills to be paid. I want two-hundred dollars a week allowance, and don’t try to tell me you don’t have that kind of money, because I know you do.”

He took a deep breath, considering what she was asking. It wasn’t unreasonable. They’d both be spared the humiliation of divorce.


End file.
